digital -> print

earlier today, i had to sit through another excruciating conversation on the best ways to repackage radio content for the web. and then, while browsing the beloved internets, something caught my eye:

The New York Times' DealBook blog (a truly awesome resource for anyone reporting on $ matters) will be publishing a stand-alone section in the print version of the paper on October 3rd.

now hang on just a sec. weren't all those newfangled bloggie-thingamadoo's gonna mean the end of print? did we ever think the process would work the other way around? not that i'd pick up a paper copy of The Times on October 3rd to see the DealBook section (and i don't think that's their idea), but if they decided to launch a DealBook magazine that was in any way similar to the blog, i might be interested in checking that out...with an important caveat:

it would in some way have to reproduce the immediacy and insider feel of the blog version.

now i for one i think that's possible, and in some instances, perhaps even preferable to the blog. i leave it to all the creative print people out there to figure out just how best to do it. but the point of all of this is: magazines can start as blogs, and what with the viral info spreading potential of the web -- they should.